Posted: May 25, 2011
JACKSON, Tenn. – Buoyed by Tristan Archer's solid start, the Tennessee Tech baseball squad opened the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Wednesday with a 6-5 victory over Eastern Kentucky.
"The opening game is vital, so it was nice to get off on the
right foot," head coach Matt Bragga said. "A big part of any
opening game is your starting pitching and our starter Tristan
Archer was phenomenal."
In a season that featured the Tech offense on most occasions,
it was Archer's solid effort that took center stage as he improved
to 7-4 on the season as he kept the Eastern Kentucky offense in
check through 7.1 innings, striking out six batters.
"The last few weeks we have been working hard to get good
starts from our starting pitchers," Archer said. "I wanted to set
the tone for the rest of the week and I feel like I threw as good
of a game as I could throw."
Eastern Kentucky may have scored the first pair of runs off a
two-run shot to from A.J. Jamison, but it was EKU starter Stephen
Heffler who would get chased from the game, as he surrendered four
runs, in just 1.2 innings.
After not converting on a bases loaded situation in the bottom
of the first, the Golden Eagles responded with a four-run rally in
the second, that was capped off by a two-run single off the bat of
Ben Burgess to
give Tech the 4-2 lead.
Given a two-run lead to work with, Archer cruised through the
middle innings, with the lone hiccup coming in the fifth when EKU
logged an unearned run to pull within one at 4-3.
With two on and one out in the top of the eighth, Archer was
lifted for Tech relief pitcher Cullen Park, who
induced a pair of groundouts to end the Colonel threat. With the
momentum in their favor, the Golden Eagles added a pair of
insurance runs in the bottom of the frame to extend their lead to
6-3.
The Colonels managed to tag Park with a pair of runs in the
top of the ninth, but Park held firm as he earned his fourth save
of the season, as Tech took the 6-5 victory.
With their win over EKU, the Golden Eagles will face no.
1 seed Austin Peay Thursday. The first pitch is set for 7
p.m.
The radio broadcast will be on B Rock 93.7 FM. Brandon Goodwin and Grant Swallows will be calling the action.
To listen via Teamline, click on the link here or on TTUsport.com and select baseball. To listen on the telephone, call 800-846-4700 and select team code 0654.
A live webstream of all of the OVC Tournament games will also be available through OVCsports.TV.
To view the livestats click here
To view the webstream click here
